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The lush tropical forest and rust-red hills of Lote, situated along India’s west coast, give way to a small hill where a industrial facility stands under the open sky.

The factory is largely newly built, but its equipment is not: it originates from the former Miteni plant in Vicenza, Italy. Miteni ceased operations in 2018 following among the most severe ecological controversies in the country’s recent history: after decades of producing persistent PFAS compounds, the firm’s leadership was brought to trial for polluting water resources in an area home to 350,000 residents. In June, its former executives were found guilty at the local tribunal of causing environmental pollution and additional offenses and sentenced to jail, which they are expected to appeal against.

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And yet, all of the company’s equipment, its patents and methods – everything needed to produce Pfas – is now located at Lote Parshuram MIDC, a vast industrial enclave thousands of miles distant, sandwiched among villages and wooded areas. And the factory has recently begun to produce forever chemicals again.

An Environmental Burden

Once known for its expertise in creating methods for advanced chemicals, Miteni is now infamous for the harmful aftermath it bequeathed. In 2011, scientists found extraordinarily high levels of PFAS compounds in the plant’s wastewater. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had been exposed through potable water.

The most impacted were Miteni’s own workers. Ilario Ermetti, 69, who worked for decades in its specialty chemicals division, showed among the top levels of PFAS ever recorded in human blood. “After the facts emerged, I reviewed a catalog of health issues related to Pfas, and found out I had them all,” states Ermetti.

Elevated concentrations of PFAS in the bloodstream are associated with increased risk of malignancies, heart conditions, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more. Ermetti is currently recovering from a recent surgical operation.

Public Apprehensions

Michela Piccoli, 51, a healthcare worker and campaigner with Mothers Against PFAS, started organizing after learning her children’s blood indicated elevated amounts of forever chemicals. When she found out that Miteni’s patents and machinery were being sent to India, she was shocked.

“Being parents, as women, our concern has grown,” she said. “Because our children are everyone’s children.”

Corporate Transition

Following Miteni’s insolvency, its holdings were acquired in 2019 by Viva Lifesciences, a subsidiary of the domestic chemical corporation Laxmi Organic Industries – the sole participant in the public auction. By early 2023, the complete machinery was travelling on freight ships heading to Mumbai. Meanwhile, Laxmi was promoting its new acquisition to shareholders. Transcripts of investor gatherings show that Laxmi’s executives downplayed ecological worries, with its chairman, Harshvardhan Goenka, stating that Miteni was “operating lawfully in compliance with EU regulations”.

Goenka is one of the three men on the board of Laxmi Organic Italy, a company founded in 2021. Another is Antonio Nardone, the final CEO of Miteni, who was found guilty of ecological offenses and false accounting at the June trial and given six years and four months in jail. According to a ex-supervisor speaking on condition of anonymity, Nardone was traveling for work to India months before the company went bankrupt.

Although Laxmi bought Miteni’s properties in June 2019, the environmental assessment report for the building of the plant in Lote reveals that in March 2018 the firm was already planning to start producing fluorochemicals compatible with Miteni’s offerings. Laxmi Organic Industries declined to answer inquiries.

Growth Plans

By 2021, Laxmi’s strategy explicitly spelled out the objective to “capture [the] market share of Miteni” and emerge as a top player in the manufacturing of Pfas and specialty chemicals. Logistics data show that, to secure validation on the standard of the chemicals, in 2024 Laxmi began distributing test batches to firms with previous commercial ties with Miteni, including BASF, Chemours, DuPont and FMC.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s location in Lote Parshuram has been completely active, producing chemicals that will be utilized for agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics and additional goods.

Regulatory Context

Investigations have shown that concentrations of persistent pollutants in the environment are alarmingly high, particularly around production sites. But even though international attention is increasing, in India the matter is not yet a policy priority.

“Examining the rules, [Pfas] is not present in those standards. It’s unacknowledged by the national authorities as of today,” said Rajneesh Gautam, an environmental chemist at the academic institution. “Independent research groups across India have performed research in different states. But this work are limited in scope, and there are still only a handful.”

Local Impact

Parineeta Dandekar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People, says the Lote Parshuram industrial district “has a dismal environmental track record”. After it was established in 1986, “the livelihood of fisher folk communities in this area totally deteriorated,” she said.

The chemical district is served by a shared effluent treatment facility that has been at the forefront of complaints.

“The local villages have consistently reported that it’s not working properly,” said Dandekar. “During power outages, a frequent event in the countryside, the facility fails to operate and factories release polluted water directly into the streams.” Environmental authorities have sent several warning letters to the site in the past few years.

Global Implications

In the EU, the regulatory agency is reviewing a plan to prohibit the production, importation and utilization of more than 10,000 forever chemicals. This attention may be driving the industry to the global south, according to Claudia Marcolungo, a legal scholar at the academic institution. “I believe that this matter should be examined, because the reality that Miteni’s production, patents and machinery have been relocated to a country like India should lead us to reflect, at the very least, on the power that these multinationals have to relocate in countries where there is evidently a race to the bottom in terms of ecological safeguards.”

Persistent Threats

Miteni has closed down, but the company’s toxic legacy lives on – at the contaminated site in Vicenza, and in Lote. The health impacts linked to Pfas production are expected to impact communities that are already struggling with an unsafe environment for generations.

“The area has experienced sufficient ecological damage by now,” says Dandekar. “If more dangerous companies move in, it’s perpetually concerning.”